The first day of the Armstrongite Feast of Tabernacles has arrived, and the improperly named "Continuing" Church of God wasted no time identifying the most important theme of the day: your wallet. Of course they did!
James Martenet gave the offertory.
Giving an offering is an act of worship. Give faithfully and you honor God with your resources. Walk by faith, not by sight. The Feast pictures the millennial kingdom, when God will dwell with humanity. Also, here is the mailing address in Grover Beach, California. PayPal works too.
Nothing says "walk by faith and not by sight" like a street address and a donations page dropped into the same paragraph as the coming Kingdom of God.
This is not an accident. It is straight from the Armstrongism playbook. Holy days in this tradition are not merely commemorations. They are collection days. Deuteronomy 16:16-17 said males were not to appear empty-handed three times a year at the pilgrimage feasts. Armstrongism stretched that into seven annual holy-day offerings, plus first tithe, plus a second tithe saved to spend on yourself at the Feast, plus (in the classic system) a third tithe in certain years, plus building funds, plus member letter appeals, plus tithe of the tithe. The Bible never commanded seven cash extractions nor all of these extra money grabs. Convenience and revenue did. Even some former insiders have said the quiet part out loud: more holy days means more offerings.
New Covenant Christians do not need any of this.
The festivals were shadows. The substance is Christ. Paul said so without embarrassment: "Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ" (Colossians 2:16-17). You do not keep camping in the shadow after the Person has arrived. You do not send the shadow a check.
Galatians 4 is even less polite. Observing days, months, seasons, and years after coming to Christ is not "restored truth." It is turning back to weak and worthless elementary principles. The Galatians were congratulating themselves on seriousness. Paul called it bondage.
The old covenant is obsolete (Hebrews 8:13). The Levitical calendar, the pilgrimage requirement, the "do not appear empty-handed" rule, and the whole sacrificial apparatus belonged to a covenant made with national Israel at Sinai. Gentiles were never parties to it. The Jerusalem council did not add "and keep Tabernacles and mail an offering to headquarters." Jesus kept the feasts because He was born under the Law. He fulfilled them. He did not commission the church to reenact them with hotel ballrooms and PayPal."
God will dwell with humanity." That is already the Christian confession. "The Word became flesh and dwelt [tabernacled] among us" (John 1:14). The Spirit already lives in believers (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19). Revelation 21 describes the final dwelling of God with man. None of those texts instruct you to picture it by taking a week off, sitting through sermons about Herbert Armstrong's 1981 feast message, and making sure Grover Beach can process your card.
Giving is not the problem. Cheerful, voluntary generosity is New Testament Christianity. Scheduled holy-day offerings framed as worship, tied to a calendar God never bound on the church, and immediately followed by an address and a donations URL-that is a different animal. It turns the first hours of a "spiritual" festival into a fundraising opener. The Kingdom of God is coming. In the meantime, please honor Him with your resources. Faith, not sight. Also Venmo.
A New Covenant Christian can rejoice that God tabernacled in Christ, dwells in His people by the Spirit, and will dwell with redeemed humanity forever. None of that requires a booth, a second tithe, a holy-day envelope, or a reminder that the most important theme of the first day is cash. The substance already came. The collection plate for the shadow can stay in the museum.
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